T-Mobile's Plan to Disrupt the Wireless Industry: 10 Takeaways

T-Mobile Is Finally Getting the iPhone

In 2013 T-Mobile will offer the iPhone—though the company didn’t specify which model. T-Mobile CEO John Legere shared, however, that T-Mobile's terms with Apple are nothing like Sprint's volume agreement for which it had to pay billions up front to get. . When T-Mobile rolls out the iPhone "it will be a dramatically different experience [for customers]."

T-Mobile's future was looking bleak. While Verizon Wireless and AT&T grew their customer bases and revenues, T-Mobile had been (and still is) losing both. During the third quarter, it lost almost half a million postpaid subscribers. It had no iPhone customers to speak of, no 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in the near term. Its business plans had been essentially stalled during 2011 as AT&T tried to win regulatory approval to buy it. There have been hints of change over the last few months, particularly its October announcement that it plans to merge with MetroPCS. Then at parent-company Deutsche Telekom's Capital Markets Day, Dec. 6, T-Mobile executives laid out a multi-part plan that has been a long time in the making. More than suggesting the carrier might survive to see another year, the plan makes a compelling argument that T-Mobile might, as CEO John Legere has promised, "disrupt the industry." This eWEEK slide show presents the details of its plan to try to shake up the wireless industry that T-Mobile executives shared during their Dec. 6 talk.